ui£  BOOKS 

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The  United  States  Government,  the  Found- 
er and  Necessary  Patron  of  the 
Liberian  Republic. 


■A.2ST  -AJDIDiR/ESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  TUB 

JANUARY  18,  1881, 

BY 

GEORGS  W.  SAMSON,  D.  D. 


PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST. 


WASHINGTON  CITY; 

PCLONIZATION  ^BUILDING,  45O  pENNSYLVANIA  ^YENUE, 
l88l, 


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Normal  School  Steam  Press, 
Hampton.  Va. 


> 


ADDRESS. 


When  intelligent  business  men  are  seen  to  be  directing  their  capital 
into  some  new  field  of  enterprise,  they  are  supposed  to  have  reasons 
justifying  their  investment.  Whcp.  leading  nations  are  observed 
to  be  conspiring  in  making  government  appropriations  for  the  common 
attainment  of  a like  end,  it  is  justly  inferred  that  some  adequate  motive 
controls  their  policy.  So,  too,  the  principles  of  natural  religion,  tho 
convictions  of  all  men,  lead  to  the  necessary  conclusion,  that,  the  Divine 
Author  of  all,  rules  alike  the  material  Universe  and  the  families  of  man- 
kind in  their  intercourse  with  each  other  for  the  accomplishment  of 
His  own  wise  and  kind  purposes. 

The  fact  that  no  less  than  nine  leading  powers  of  Europe, — England, 
France,  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Germany  and  Rus- 
sia,— have  been  engaged  the  past  year  in  African  explorations,  certainly 
indicates  a common  and  an  important  end  which  those  nations,  leading 
in  modern  civilization,  arc  seeking  to  attain.  The  summary,  so  concise- 
ly and  clearly  presented  in  a recent  publication  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society,  aids  the  ordinary  observer  of  foreign 
affairs  to  analyze  and  group  the  reasons  that  have  led  to  this  converging 
of  interests  on  the  Continent  of  Africa. 

There  are  three  classes  of  corporate  bodies  that  are  providing  the 
money  appropriations  which  sustain  and  promote  these  explorations;  the 
two  former  of  which  have  been  sustained  by  Government  action.  First 
in  natural  order  are  commercial  companies;  since itis  through  commerce 
that  the  shores  and  ports  of  foreign  lands  arc  made  kuowu,  and  because 
the  want  of  products,  for  the  bodily  welfare  of  advanced  nations  is  tho 
first  to  prompt  enterprise.  Second  in  order  come  scientific  associations, 
including  geographical  and  archceological  societies,  whose  explorations 
have  the  double  end  of  opening  roads  to  commerce  and  of  amassing 
knowledge,  interesting  or  profitable  to  men  as  intellectual  beings. 
Third  in  the  list  appear  religious  societies;  including  educational  and 
missionary  organizations. 

This  grouping  of  organizations  that  have  been  penetrating  the  con- 
tinent of  Africa  on  all  sides  for  years,  and  that  have  displayed  special 
completeness  and  activity  during  the  past  year,  naturally  suggests  in- 
quiry as  to  the  originating  spring,  the  fundamental  source,  and  espe- 
cially the  harmonizing  and  all-controliug  influence  in  human  nature, 
which  prompts  the  united  action  of  these  classes  of  associations  and  the 
favoring  co-operation  of  the  nine  governments  of  Europe  which  have 


4 


sustained  the  two  former  in  their  work . Without  doubt  it  is  to  be 
foutod  in  the  principles  brought  out  by  such  masterly  works  on  the 
philosophy  of  history  as  Guizot’s  Progress  of  Civilization  in  Europe. 
There  are,  as  Guizot  shows,  two  elements  that  constitute  and  that  ad- 
vance human  civilization,  the  material  and  the  moral.  The  material 
interests  and  the  physical  impulses  of  men  prompt  them  to  the  supply 
of  animal  wants  by  the  accumulation  of  wealth  and  through  that  of  all 
the  conveniences  and  comforts  of  bodily  life.  The  moral  interests  and 
the  mental  impulses  prompt  to  the  accumulation  of  knowledge  as  to  all 
the  social  and  religious  relations  of  diankind  and  to  the  supply  provided 
in  the  teachings  of  nature  and  of  revelation  which  meets  those  wants.  In 
this  analysis  the  great  statesman,  Guizot,  accepts  all  of  truth  brought  out 
by  such  minds  as  Buckle,  Comte  and  Spencer;  who  in  their  seclusion  see 
clearly  what  men  ought  to  be  in  their  relations  to  the  world  and  to  each 
other;  and  what  they  would  be  provided  they  partook  only  of  the  na- 
ture of  mere  animals  or  of  pure  angels.  But  the  practical  man  of  af- 
fairs, mingling  with  men  in  their  social,  political  and  religious  rela- 
tions, finds  that  men  partake  of  both  the  animal  and  the  angelic  na- 
tures; that  these  two  natures,  which  “war  within  us,”  and  which  lead 
to  .“wars  and  fightings  among  men,”  must  be  harmonized ; otherwise 
neither  the  passive  quiet  of  herded  animals  nor  the  active  peace  of 
banded  angels,  will  be  found  in  human  families,  communities  and  na- 
tions. Going  farther,  with  the  fearful  experience  of  communistic  an- 
archy fresh  and  frequent  before  his  own  eyes,  Guizot  saw,  as  also  Eng- 
lish and  American  statesmen  have  seen,  that  men  need,  not  simple  accu- 
mulation of  wealth,  but  the  guarantee  in  man’s  improved  moral  instruc- 
tion, moral  training  and  religious  enlightenment,  that  the  accumulation 
of  individual  wealth  and  of  national  treasures  in  art,  in  science  and  in 
all  the  appliances  of  human  advancement,  will  not  in  the  frenzy  of  a day 
be  plundered  or  destroyed.  It  is  this  ruling  necessity  which  in  the  ex- 
plorations of  the  past  year  on  the  continent  of  Africa,  has  caused  com- 
merce, science  and  religion  to  go  hand  in  hand.  It  seems  to  be  timely 
to  review,  at  this  sixty-fourth  anniversary  of  the  American  Colonization 
Society,  the  necessary  union  of  Governmental  and  Associational  co-op- 
eration in  repaying  our  National  debt  to  Africa. 

The  consideration  of  t his  topic  requires  a brief  review  of  the  assum- 
ed relation  through  the  mother  country  of  the  American  Colonics,  and 
then  of  the  independent  United  States  of  America,  to  the  people  of 
Africa. 

As  Bancroft  has  clearly  shown  the  Government  and  people  of  Great 
Britain,  more  truly  than  of  Spain,  sought  two  cuds  in  bringing  African 
slaves  into  this  country.  As  Governor  Brown,  of  Georgia,  has  just  re- 
peated in  the  United  States  Senate,  the  people  of  Georgia,  who  at  first 
resisted  the  attempts  to  introduce  African  slaves  into  that  colony,  yield- 


5 


ed  at  last  because  of  tbc  conviction,  urged  by  such  men  as  George 
Wbitcfield,  that  tbc  only  apparent  means  of  enlightening  and  Christ- 
ianizing the  people  of  Africa,  who  in  their  native  land  were  warring 
against  and  enslaving  each  other,  was  to  receive  and  educate  them  as 
laborers  on  the  rich  lands  of  the  South.  At  the  same  time,  Jonathan 
Edwards,  whose  sincerity  none  will  doubt,  urged  the  same  idea,  and  as 
a motive  to  Christian  fidelity  in  evangelizing  the  colored  people  in  New 
England. 

When  the  colonial  times  bad  passed  a new  relation  was  assumed  by 
the  state  and  national  governments  to  the  colored  people.  New  Englmd, 
provided  with  laborers  from  the  old  world  and  moved  by  convictions 
of  moral  duty,  freed  her  slaves;  some  of  whose  descendants  yet  linger 
in  her  large  towns.  The  duty,  however,  of  educating  and  Christianiz- 
ing, and  if  dependent,  of  providing  homes  and  food  for  these  freedmen, 
remained,  and  was  met  by  state  legislation.  The  Southern  StaV^dif- 
crcntly  situated,  retained  their  colored  people  in  servitude;  ofteu  indeed 
making  provision  for  emancipation  by  individuals,  as  well  as  for  the 
care  of  freed  people;  and,  above  all,  through  the  fidelity  of  Christian  la- 
borers winning  to  a sincere  Christian  faith  a larger  proportion  of  the 
colored  people  than  has  ever  before  been  found  among  any  people  in 
any  age. 

At  the  same  time  the  national  as  well  as  state  governments,  recogni- 
zed and  assumed  a new  relation  to  the  colored  people.  The  provision 
of  the  U.  S.  Constitution  limiting  the  importation  of  slaves  to  twenty- 
one  years,  was  not  only  an  assumed  relation,  but  it  implied  and  com- 
pelled another  assumed  duty  when  the  twenty-one  years  had  expired. 
The  anxious  thought  and  effort  of  the  successive  Presidents,  Jefferson, 
Madison  and  Monroe,  to  provide  a fit  asylum  for  slaves  brought  to  Amer- 
ican ports  after  the  year  when  the  importation  was  to  cease,  not  only 
suggested,  but,  after  various  expedients  compelled  the  naval  expeditions 
repeatedly  sent,  first  to  explore,  then  to  colonize  and  then  to  protect 
the  colonists  on  the  shore  of  Africa. 

Another  new  relation  was  assumed,  when,  after  years  of  ineffectual 
efforts  in  co-operation  with  Great  Britain  to  arrest  slave-ships  by  means 
of  national  cruisers  on  the  African  coast,  the  American  cruisers  were 
directed  to  act  on  the  American  shore  of  the  Atlantic,  while  the  British 
cruisers  acted  on  the  African  Coast.  Then,  since  the  naval  vessels  were 
no  longer  detailed  for  the  long  voyage,  the  American  Colonizition  So- 
ciety was  made  the  agent  of  the  United  States  government  in  sending 
the  recaptured  slaves  to  Liberia  and  in  providing  a safe  asylum  and  a 
school  for  independence  on  the  coast  of  their  native  Continent.  Then 
amid  all  the  countless  influences  which  agitated  the  people  both  North 
and  South  a3  disunion  threatened,  the  voice  of  the  public  conscience, 
prompting  to  assumed  duty,  was  triumphant  in  Congress,  while  it  was 


6 


specially  deep  and  earnest  in  the  executive.  No  American  can  so  real- 
ize this  as  did  the  two  men  called  to  meet  frequently  the  two  Christian 
statesmen,  the  Secretaiies  of  State  and  of  the  Navy,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  provide  for  the  necessity  laid  upon  the  United  States  Government.  It 
is  enough  to  state  the  fact,  that,  under  the  two  administrations  respon- 
sible for  the  integrity  of  national  policy  from  March  4th,  1853,  to 
March  4th,  1 SGI,  the  slave  trade  to  all  North  American  ports,  the  West 
India  Islands  included,  was  completely  broken  up  and  all  the  captured 
people  were  colonized  by  Government  appropriations  in  Liberia. 

Yet  a new  relation  was  assumed  when  the  war  for  the  union  brought 
Southern  slaves  within  the  lines  of  the  Union  armies.  The  duty  of 
providing  for  them  was  such,  that,  promptly  on  the  appeal  of  President 
Lincoln,  Congress  made  an  appropriation  for  the  foreign  colonization 
of  the  people  desiring  such  provision.  When  the  scheme  of  coloniza- 
tion firs,  in  Central  America,  then  in  the  Danish  West  Indies,  had  been 
frustrated,  no  one  but  those  called  to  the  interview,  can  ever  appreciate 
the  intense  anxiety  shown  by  President  Lincoln;  personally  sending  for, 
and  conversing  two  hours  witlv  the  sub  committee  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  this  Society;  sending  at  their  suggestion  an  intelligent  colored 
clergyman  as  their  representative  to  visit  Liberia  and  report  to  the  clus- 
tering crowds  of  his  people  gathered  at  the  national  Capital.  The  rush 
of  events  during  the  delay,  the  decision  of  the  War  Department  to  em- 
ploy colored  troops,  and  the  idea  that  lauds  and  other  provisions  at 
home  would  be  granted  to  the  emancipated  people,  arrested  this  stago 
of  Government  provision  for  colonists  to  the  African  Republic. 

Yet  another  new  stage  of  Government  duty  had  now  arrived;  before 
entering  upon  whose  consideration,  since  it  is  the  present  demand,  this 
fact  should  be  distinctly  recalled.  In  every  stage  of  the  relations  as- 
sumed between  this  country  and  its  people,  towards  Africa  and  her 
people,  the  two  elements  above  considered,  that  constitute  civilization 
and  that  impose  consequent  national  duty,  have  been  found  acting  in 
co-operation;  the  material  without  question  too  often  dominant;  buttho 
moral  silently  hut  surely  asserting  ultimate  supremacy  over  the  Christ- 
ian people  who  settled  the  American  continent,  and  over  their  descen- 
dants of  each  succeeding  generation.  Certainly  no  one  will  question  tho 
essential  fact  at  issue,  that  since  the  origin  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, the  moral  has  steadily  gained  sway  over  the  material  in  tho 
motives  controlling  the  policy  of  the  United  States  people  and  its  rep- 
resentatives in  their  relation  to  the  colored  people.  This  certaiuly  was 
the  case  w hen  by  provision  of  the  Constitution,  for  material  consider- 
ations, the  importation  of  slaves  was  permitted  during  twenty-one 
years;  while  in  the  same  Constitution,  the  moral  consideration  was  de- 
clared to  be  ruling  after  that  period.  This  certaiuly  was  the  case  when, 
though  at  the  planting  of  the  hist  colony  of  Liberia  material  consider- 


7 


alions  might  li.ivc  influenced  some  who  desired  the  removal  of  free- 
colored  people,  the  highest  moral  convictions  ruled  the  statesmen  and 
philanthropists  who  wished  to  provide  a safe  home  for  captured  slaves, 
and  a Christian  Republic,  on  the  dark  continent.  Surely,  too,  religious, 
duty  led  to  t lie  supply  of  most  of  the  colonists,  when  Christian  owners 
sacrificed  thousands  of  dollars  in  giving,  first  freedom,  and  then  ainplo- 
provision  in  their  freedom,  to  their  most  advanced  and  valuable  serv- 
ants, who  went  joyfully  to  their  new  home.  This,  yet  again,  was  the 
ease  when  the  measures  were  inaugurated  which  broke  up  the  slavo 
trade,  and  threw  on  the  hands  of  the  United  States  Government  hun- 
dreds of  captured  slaves  to  be  provided  for  in  Africa;  for,  though  ma- 
terial interests  can,  in  almost  any  act  of  men  and  of  nations,  be  sup. 
posed  to  enter  into  human  counsels,  such  suggestions  at  this  stage  of 
African  Colonization  arc  certaidy  overshadowed  by  a nobler  impulse. 

Coming  then  to  the  last  stage  the  study  of  human  impulses  should 
be  impartially  weighed,  that  decision  may  be  just  and  duty  clear.  In 
his  interview  with  the  Committee  of  the  American  Colonization  Socie- 
ty, asked  by  President  Lincoln,  he  did  drop  expressions,  like  this:  “I 
must  get  rid  somehow  of  this  burden  of  care  for  the  colored  people; 
which  may  prove,  among  other  weights,  the  last  pound  to  break  tho 
camel's  back.”  But  such  utterances  were  momentary  ebulitions.  Tho 
deep,  pcivading,  controlling  utterances  were  like  these;  “I  must  do 
right  by  these  people.  I am  not  sure  that  I have  authority  to  assumo 
that  they  arc  free;  and  that  I shall  not  be  called  to  account  for  sending 
them  out  of  the  country.  But,  I must  do  the  best  for  them  under  tho 
circumstances;  and  I will  run  the  risk  of  sending  them  to  Africa  if  they 
care  to  go.” 

As  mentioned,  however,  the  delay  necessary  to  make  the  requisite 
arrangements,  the  sending  of  an  agent  to  explore  and  bring  back  his  re- 
port to  the  people,  the  rush  of  events,  the  need  of  immediate  provision 
for  the  increasing  crowds  of  refugees  who  had  come  within  tho  lines, 
and  the  policy  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  as  well  as  the  hopes  that  t lie  em- 
ploy of  colored  troops  inspired  ns  to  future  Government  provision, 
delayed  African  Colonization ; until  a new  phase  of  assumed  duty  re- 
vived the  demand. 

The  impoverished  condition  of  the  border  Slave  States,  the  dc. 
struction  and  waste  of  farming  implements  during  the  years  of  war,  yet 
more  the  exhausted  soil,  made  the  necessity  of  transferring  colored  labor- 
ers to  the  richer  lands  of  the  South,  as  well  as  of  partial  provision  for 
them  in  their  field  of  labor;  and  this  transfer  and  provision  through  tho 
Freedman's  Bureau  became  a Government  duty  and  charge.  Accom- 
panying this  transfer,  disappointment  and  dissatisfaction  in  the  minds 
of  some  of  the  dependent  people  naturally  arose ; then  came,  afresh, 
thoughts  of  Africa  as  a home  that  had  a future  of  promise;  and  this. 


8 


lime  for  the  first,  it  was  (he  thought,  the  aspiration  and  the  request  of 
the  colored  people  themselves.  Just  at  tills  juncture,  the  experienced 
and  honored  Secretary.  Rev.  R,  It.  Guiley,  finished  his  course;  and  by 
the  desire  and  direction  of  the  Executive  Committee,  l lie  single  indi- 
vidual who  for  years  had  been  Mr.  Gurley’s  associate  in  such  calls  was 
desired  to  see  the  men  most  likely  to  take  a just  view  of  the  demand. 
President  Lincoln  was  no  more;  and  two  intimate  personal  friends  were, 
therefore,  sought;  Maj.  General  Howard,  at  the  head  of  the  Frecd- 
men's  Bureau,  and  Senator  W.  P. Fessenden,  of  Maine,  whose  declin- 
ing health,  had  compelled  him  to  resign  the  post  of  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  w ho  was  then  Chairman  of  the  Finance  Committee  in  the 
Senate.  Both  urged  that  the  presence  of  the  colored  people  was  needed 
as  a material  force  in  promoting  the  labor  required  in  the  South,  and 
yet  more  as  a moral  clement,  aiding  as  voters  to  secure  the  protection 
of  their  associates  in  the  Southern  States  and  their  advancement  in 
social  relations.  The  force  and  justice  of  these  ends  suggested,  was 
allowed;  hut  the  counter  truth  was  urged  that  those  who  wished  to  go 
to  Liberia  were  entitled  to  seek  their  individual  interests  as  truly  as 
white  citizens,  aud  that  to  deny  this  would  he  to  perpetuate  the  sub- 
ordination of  the  interests  of  the  colored  people  to  the  interests  of  the 
while  race.  The  justice  of  the  pica  was  allowed.  Through  General 
Howard  the  cost  of  transport  as  far  as  Charleston  or  Norfolk  to  emi- 
grants for  Africa  was  granted.  Senator  Fessenden  promised  to  urge  in 
the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate  that  the  same  appropriation  be 
made  for  freed  people  wishing  to  emigrate  to  Africa,  w hich  had  in  years 
past  been  made  for  slaves  captured  on  the  ocean.  The  untimely  death 
of  Senator  Fessenden  prevented  the  realization  of  his  design. 

During  the  past  year,  in  the  mission  of  Commodore  Shufeldt,  the 
United  States  Government  has  again  recognized  the  debt  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  to  the  Liberian  Republic.  It  is  a debt,  with  its  correspon- 
dent responsibilities,  both  to  the  American  colored  people  aud  to  the 
land  robbed,  since  their  ancestors  were  brought  hither,  of  its  legiti- 
mate population;  yet  a debt,  which,  as  Jefferson,  Madison  and  Clay  all 
agreed  in  stati:  g,  can  be  amply  repaid  provided  the  people  and  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  return  to  Africa,  in  place  of  uncultured 
and  heathen  barbarians,  a cultivated  and  Christian  people  capable  of 
maintaining  an  independent  and  growing  civilization  on  the  continent 
of  Africa.  Whether  this  can  be  realized,  whether  the  facts  of  past 
history  assure  this  realization,  is  the  vital  practical  question,  worthy  our 
final  consideration.  For,  if  this  cannot  be  realized,  the  duty  of  the 
American  people  is  doubtful;  whereas,  if  it  can  he  realized  no  shadow 
of  a doubt  can  he  allowed  to  excuse  the  neglect  of  paying  our  debt. 

Here  it  is  of  vital  importance  to  notice  that  England  and  America, 
equally  implicated  in  bringing  the  sons  of  Africa  to  our  shores,  and 


9 


equally  indebted  to  Africa,  have  from  the  first  been  true  represent- 
atives of  two  lines  of  policy  pursued  towards  the  African  people  in  all 
past  ages,  and  now  legitimate  in  these  two  distinct  nations.  England, 
whose  increasing  and  ever  advancing  people,  pent  up  in  a little  island, 
must  seek  foreign  territory  in  fulfilling  the  double  dnty  of  sclf-dcvel- 
opement  and  of  extending  civilization,  has  in  both  Asia  and  Africa, 
since  the  loss  of  her  chief  American  colonies,  been  steadily  sacking 
territorial  occupation;  and  of  course  in  establishing  imperial  rule,  in 
both  Asia  and  Africa.  The  history  of  her  occupation  of  African  terri- 
tory began,  when  during  the  war  of  American  Independence,  slaves 
came  within  the  lines  of  her  armies  just  as  they  came  within  the  lines 
of  the  Union  army  during  our  late  war.  As  a necessity  imposed  upon 
them  the  British  Government  provided  the  colored  refugees, first,  a tem- 
porary home  in  Canada;  and  then,  afterwards,  at  great  cost, — an  ex- 
pense perpetuated  to  this  day, — they  were  furnished  a permanent  home 
at  Sierra  Leone;  a projecting  Western  Cape  of  Africa,  which  became  a 
depot  in  the  line  of  England's  then  increasing  India  trade.  Since  that 
day,  points  of  permanent  territorial  occupation  have  been  sought;  first 
at  the  Southern  Cape  of  Africa;  then  at  Natal  on  its  eastern  coast;  then 
at  Lagos  commanding  the  mouth  of  the  Niger,  South  of  the  Great  West- 
ern desert;  to  which  have  succeeded  a temporary  military  expedition 
into  Christian  Abyssinia,  and  permanent  commercial  establishments  in 
the  heathen  and  Mohammedan  sections  of  the  Continent.  No  impartial 
observer,  however, — no  honest  critic,  even,  can  fail  to  see  and  to  say  that 
in  this  occupation,  British  Christian  blessings  to  the  African  people 
have  gone  hand  in  hand  with  British  monopoly  of  African  commerce. 
For  exploration  she  has  both  wisely  and  humanely  employed  such  men 
as  Livingstone,  the  Christian  missionary;  whose  mantle  fell  even  upon 
the  young  American  Stanley  with  such  grace  that  the  Christian  con- 
version of  the  African  Emperor  Mtesa  became  as  truly  a part  of  his  mis- 
sion as  the  opening  of  a newiicld  for  British  trade. 

This  is  England's  chosen  and  legitimate  policy  of  promoting  civili- 
zation in  Africa.  But,  America  has  another  mission;  approved  alike  by 
the  reasoning  of  her  men  of  science  and  by  the  deductions  from  history 
which  will  rule  American  statesmen.  In  the  winter  of  1SG0  ‘61,  Guyot 
the  Christian  scientist,  the  peer  of  Agassiz  in  comprehensive  observation 
and  careful  analysis,  in  a course  of  Lectures  at  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution, brought  out  the  fact  that  in  the  Divine  design,  the  three  fam- 
ilies are  three  types  of  human  development  of  mankind,  whose  history 
has  been  alike  traced  by  Moses,  Herodotus,  Diodorus  and  Bunsen. 
These  three  families  are  permanent  types  of  bouyant  and  sincere 
childhood,  of  the  imaginative  and  self-sufficient  spirit  of  youth,  and 
of  the  advanced  and  advancing  thirst  for  science  and  philosophy  pe- 
culiar to  mature  age.  The  first  family  is  the  Ilamitic  of  Africa;  cheerful, 


10 


docile,  fond  of  physical  employ;  simple  in  its  unelaboratcd  language, 
and  isolated  except  when  forced  from  their  home.  The  second  is  the 
Semitic  or  Asiatic;  imaginative,  poetic  and  self-satisfied  ; with  language 
half-elaborated;  arbitrary  in  rule  over  inferior  tribes,  yet  overshadow- 
ing only  those  simpler  people  naturally  brought  under  its  shade  by  its 
own  branching,  which  extends  its  spread.  The  third  is  t he  Japhetic  or 
European;  never  satisfied  with  the  highest  attainments  in  individual 
progress;  and  ever  aspiring  for  more  extended  rule  over  less  devel- 
oped tribes. 

Iu  Africa,  the  home  of  t!\c  first  race,  the  modern  British  policy  was 
witnessed  from  time  immemorial  in  Egypt  and  Carthage  on  the  North; 
a precedent  too  often  quoted  as  if  it  were  the  only  guide  in  African  de- 
velopment. In  Egypt  foreign  kings,  as  Herodotus  records,  ruled  from 
the  days  of  Mcncs,  two  centuries  before  Abraham's  day;  it  was  into  this 
family  Joseph  married,  and  it  was  under  their  tuition  that  Moses  be- 
came learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt.  At  Carthage,  Phcnician 
science  and  lettcis  were  ruling  before  Eneas,  the  fugitive  TrojaD,  visi- 
ted its  shore;  while  Greek  colonies  ruled  in  Cyrene  before  Homer  wrote. 
At  the  same  time,  however,  in  Central  Africa,  in  ancient  Ethiopia,  now 
modern  Abyssinia,  a pure  type  of  the  darkest  colored  African  race 
threatened  Egypt  in  Moses’  day;  Moses,  as  Josephus  records,  led  an 
Egyptian  army  thither,  justifying  Luke's  record  that  he  was  “mighty 
in  deeds”  as  well  as  “in  words;”  and  in  his  exile  the  Hebrew  law-giver 
married  an  Ethiopian  wife,  to  whom  lie  proved  faithful  in  his  exalta- 
tion, though  opposed  by  family  pride.  As  permanent  witness  to  the 
association  of  Moses  in  On  with  both  these  superior  and  inferior  races 
is  the  fact,  that  one-tenth  of  the  words  of  Moses’  records  are  Sanscrit 
and  one-fifteenth  arc  Ethiopic.  Shortly  after  the  Hebrews  left  Egypt 
under  Moses,  as  Bunsen  has  &liown,  Ethiopian  kings  invaded,  and  for 
centuries  held,  upper  Egypt,  with  its  grandest  city  Thebes.  In  the  cul- 
minating spread  of  the  Hebrew'  power  under  David,  the  royal  poet  and 
prophet  wrote:  “Ethiopia  shall  soon  stretch  out  her  hands  unto  God.” 
That  promise  of  early  conversion  to  the  faith  of  the  Old  Testament  was 
in  the  reign  of  Solomon,  and  through  his  commerce,  realized ; illustrating 
the  fact  recorded  by  Luke  the  historian  of  Christ  and  11  is  apostles,  that 
the  treasurer  of  the  Queen  of  Ethiopia  wms  reading  the  prophet  Isaiah, 
while  making  a pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  as  a proselyte  to  the  Jewish 
faith.  Returning  home  as  a Christian  convert,  as  Bishop  Goba:  has 
shown,  an  independent  African  power  lias  maintained  an  independent 
and  high  character  to  this  day,  resisting  the  assaults  of  all  foreign'  pow- 
ers, and  holding  fast  the  Christian  faith  amid  heathenism,  untempted 
by  the  professedly  new  supplements  to  Christianity  claimed  to  have  been 
made  by  Mohammed.  Even  when  England, iu  1808,  invaded  this  African 
•nation,  the  proud  monarch,  boasting  his  descent  from  the  Queen  of  Sheba, 


11 


whose  realm  was  separated  from  Ethiopia  by  only  the  narrow  strait  of 
Bab-cl-mandcb,  claiming  alto  descent  from  Solomon  through  this  Queen 
os  one  among  his  thousaud  wives — this  proud  and  consciously  superior 
African  prince  proposed  an  alliance  with  England  by  offering  to  tako 
its  widowed  sovereign  ns  one  of  his  wives. 

With  this  perpetuated  example  of  the  true  African's  capacity  for  in- 
dependent government  before  them,  it  was  not  surprising  that  at  a very 
caily  day  in  the  history  of  the  colony  at  Liberia,  the  nation,  whose  an- 
cestors for  a century  and  a half  had  been  ruled  by  their  mother  country 
as  dependent  colonists,  should  have  entrusted  the  colored  people  them- 
selves with  the  management  of  theifcown  executive,  legislative  and  ju- 
dicial affairs.  It  is  confirmatory  of  this  wisdom  in  the  past,  that  for 
half  a century  the  U.  S.  Government  has  interposed  in  t lie  affairs  of  the 
Liberian  Republic,  only  when,  as  during  the  last  year,  their  good  offi- 
ces in  aiding  the  settlement  of  a territorial  question  as  to  boundary, 
was  invited ; a question  to  whose  settlement  our  people  are  committed 
because  theirs  was  the  original  purchase.  When  now  that  Republic  is 
asking  for  emigrants  from  our  shores  to  increase  their  population,  and 
when,  too,  t lie  Colonization  Society  is  specially  careful  to  select  the  men 
and  the  families  best  fitted  in  every  respect  to  become  useful  citizens 
of  the  Republic  of  Liberia,  no  wonder  that  the  intelligent  men,  who 
must  act  in  meeting  our  national  responsibility,  declare  with  assurance 
that  the  future  stability  and  success  of  the  Colony  is  assured.  One  tact 
especially,  no  lover  of  his  country  north  or  south  can  forget,  as  a testi- 
mony to  the  moral  control  exhibited  by  the  colored  people  of  the  South 
at  home ; which  cannot  prove  deceptive  as  to  their  future  in  Africa. 
When  in  the  progress  of  the  late  war  for  the  Union,  four  millions  of  peo- 
ple were  assured  that  emancipation  would  be  their  boon  if  the  war  final- 
ly turned  against  their  masters,  not  a single  instance  of  insurrection 
during  the  four  long  years  of  conflict  occurred.  Without  any  question 
it  was  an  all-controlling  religious  sentiment  that  lay  at  the  foundation 
of  this  anomaly  in  history.  When  the  remarkable  fact  is  taken  into  ac- 
count that  450,000,  or  about  one-eighth  of  the  4,000,000  of  colored  peo- 
ple in  our  Southern  States,  arc  communicants  in  the  Christian  Churches 
of  a single  denomination,  that  about  220,000,  or  an  added  half-eighth  are 
united  to  a single  other  denomination— so  that  without  doubt  nearly  one 
half  of  the  entire  adult  population  arc  followers  of  the  Prince  of  Peace — 
not  only  does  this  fact  explain  the  past  as  to  the  order  and  stability  of 
the  Liberian  Republic  and  as  '.o  their  years  of  faithful,  loyal  service  in 
our  States,  but  it  is  a prophetic  voice  giving  assurance  that,  through 
them  as  colonists,  all  Africa  will  become  civilized  and  Christianized. 

In  a brief  but  suggestive  address  following  a lecture  on  the  Irish 
and  their  promise,  by  Rev.  G.  W.  Nepworth,  delivered  a few  evenings 
since,  in  New  York,  cx-Govcrnor  Huffman,  whose  political  course  is 


12 


known,  uttered  words  to  this  cflcct:  that  “God  had  disappointed  the 
politicians  of  all  schools  in  our  country;  and  the  same  might  prove  true 
in  Great  Britain.”  That  was  a pregnant  tiuth.  The  Iiisli  people  nev- 
er can  be  independent  of  their  union  to  Great  Biitain:  they  may  never- 
theless, yet  be  reconciled  to  that  union ; but  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past, 
without  question,  the  laboring  people  who  aspire  to  a future  of  promise 
for  themselves  and  their  children,  will  seek  it  by  emigration.  So  in 
our  Union,  no  state  or  section  will  ever  be  independent  of  their  sister 
states;  that  Union  both  for  white  and  colored  citizens,  may  and  will 
become  more  universally  satisfactory;  but  the  colored  people  in  our 
country  will  always  be  dependent  on  superior  capital  and  culture,  and 
the  more  intelligent  and  aspiring  will  seek  a home  where  competition 
will  not  always  keep  them  behind  in  the  individual  struggle  for  social 
preferment. 

We  end,  therefore,  as  we  began.  Men  of  business  and  nations  will 
have  their  plans  for  Africa  and  its  people.  But  the  Lord  of  all  mankind, 
the  God  of  nations,  has  also  His  plans;  and  those  plans  will  prevail. 


/ 


*r 


r*  . I 

I he  United  States  Government,  the  Found- 
er and  Necessary  Patron  of  the 
Liberian  Republic. 


-A-ILT  .A-IDIDiR/IESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE 


JANUARY  18,  1881, 


B V 


GEORGE  W.  SAMSON,  D.  D. 


PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST. 


WASHINGTON  CITY; 

pOLONIZATION  J3UILD1NG,  45O  pENNSYCYANIA  ^ VENUE 


